=Nekau=, or =Necho=, maintained an army of Greeks, and two fleets, one in the Mediterranean and one in the Red Sea. He recut and enlarged the old canal which in the time of Seti I joined the Nile and the Red Sea, and is said to have employed 120,000 men in the work. He led an army into Syria, and fought with =Josiah=, king of Judah, who attempted to bar his progress in the valley of Megiddo; Josiah was struck by an Egyptian arrow which penetrated his disguise, and he died (2 Kings xxiii, 29 ff.; 2 Chron. xxxv, 22). Necho advanced towards the Euphrates, but was met at Karkemish by Nebuchadnezzar II and his army, and in the battle which followed he was defeated. Among the small objects inscribed with his name are: A bronze =shrine= (Table-case H, Third Egyptian Room), a porcelain =vase= (Wall-case 157, Fourth Egyptian Room), an =alabastron= (Wall-case 139, Fourth Egyptian Room), and a limestone =draughtsman= (Standard-case C, Fourth Egyptian Room). [Sidenote: B.C. 596.] [Sidenote: B.C. 592.] [Illustration: Head of a colossal statue of Psammetichus II, about B.C. 596. [Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 23, No. 803.]] The reign of =Psammetichus II=, the son of Necho, was short and unimportant; but he appears to have made a raid into Nubia. He repaired several of the large temples at Heliopolis, Memphis, Karnak, and Elephantine. Among the monuments of his reign is a head from a colossal =statue= of =the king=, found near the south end of the Suez Canal (Bay 23, No. =803=). For small objects inscribed with his name see the =scarabs= in Table-case D, and a portion of a =sistrum= in Wall-case 157, Fourth Egyptian Room. Under =Ḥāā-ȧb-Rā Uaḥ-ȧb-Rā=, the =Pharaoh Ḥophra= of Jeremiah xliv, 30 and the =Apries= of the Greeks, Egypt enjoyed a period of great prosperity, directly due to the encouragement he gave to commerce, and to the business qualities of the Greeks who had settled in Naukratis and elsewhere in Egypt. He made an expedition into Syria. =Zedekiah=, king of Judah, counted upon his help to repulse =Nebuchadnezzar II=; but failing to do so, Ḥophra incurred the denunciations of the prophet Jeremiah: “And this shall be a sign to you, saith the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil: Thus saith the LORD: Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon his enemy, and that sought his life” (Jeremiah xliv, 29-30). Pharaoh Ḥophra was dethroned by his own soldiers, who made their general =Ȧāḥmes= (Amāsis II) king in his stead. Among monuments bearing his name are a limestone =stele=, on which is sculptured the figure of the king (Bay 22, No. =804=), and a portion of a statue of =Pefā-Net=, the king’s chief physician (Central Saloon, No. =805=). [Sidenote: B.C. 572.]